ARTE: Numa shows in ArtVoices group exhibition

Numa will be apart of ARTVOICES MAGAZINE 5th annual group exhibition for emerging contemporary artists! It opens this weekend. 

ARTE: Moments of sonder: Space, Time, Performative

Regarding space, time and performative acts:

The Sonder exhibition represents the synthesis of my pursuits to work more sculpturally and engage time and space in the work. I have embraced the idea of making these text portraits as performative acts. The process of writing a text in repetition over time is a metaphor for the ways that we accumulate information. A pivotal moment that prompted a deeper examination of this idea was during the process of creating my first large-scale drawing installation in 2011. After rendering the portrait with a hand-written text, I destroyed the drawing at the close of the exhibition in front of an audience. This experienced directed me toward making another large scale work that physically engaged an audience in the making/completion of a drawing.

Sonder became a work that not only engaged the audience, but transitioned people into being participants that become a part of the work. The large installation is composed of three layers of translucent textiles, suspended from the ceiling, several feet apart from one another. The transparency of the material allows the viewer to see through parts of the first panel, into the second, while the distance between them allows the viewer to traverse inside the installation. The installation is in a constant state of flux as people move about the space and in between the panels. It is also designed to iterate the very definition of the word sonderand its emphasis on noticing strangers.

***this blog was taken from kenturah's micro-site for sonder...moments of sonder

ARTE: Moments of sonder: Binary Code

Regarding binary code:

Working with the written language, I’ve become increasingly engaged with the history of writing. Understanding that the advent of written information arrived as the capacity of the human memory deteriorated situates my portraits as a kind of record. 

Over a year ago I began thinking about the binary number system and how I might make a drawing using a code. I had an interest in deconstructing text into the most reduced expression as possible. As the idea for Sonder developed into a multi-layered artwork it became important to explore the possibility of working with different kinds of information across the three panels. As a result, the second panel of the installation is composed by converting the definition of the word sonder into binary code and stamping that onto the textile. The tapestry of binary number elicits a reading that is not comprehended in a literal sense; rather, it presents itself as a coded matrix that references the evolution of an ancient mathematical concept into its modern application in computer technology.

***this blog was taken from kenturah's micro-site for sonder...moments of sonder

ARTE: Moments of sonder: QR CODE

Regarding the QR code:

After deciding to draw the second panel with binary code, I knew that a third panel should be an extension of the first two panels that pushed the content of the work into another form to convey information. After converting the original text of the first panel to binary code on the second panel, it made sense to complete the piece by making a final conversion for a third panel. I chose to use a Quick Response code, a matrix barcode, because it technologically relies on the binary system to pass information through cyberspace. QR codes can be scanned by someone’s mobile devices and them to a website. So, I set up a website whose purpose would be to show documentation about the creation of the Sonder exhibit. I then generated a QR code for the URL of the website and ordered a rubber stamp customized with the code. As a result I was able to draw the last panel with a stamp that engages technology in a self-reflexive look at the content of the work, by linking the viewer to this microsite with ongoing documentation about the project (momentsofsonder.tumblr.com).

***this blog was taken from kenturah's micro-site for sonder...moments of sonder

ARTE: Edgar Arceneaux + LAxART

Edgar is doing a screening this weekend at The Silent Movie Theatre in LA